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Yelin and Trupin (2003) found that workers withdisabilities are more likely to have episodic employmentand employment that is part time. Hotchkiss(2004), however, argues that the increase in the fractionof the population with disabilities engaged in parttimework is largely a voluntary phenomenon. Becausethe relative “attractiveness” of the occupations (interms of O*NET 5 measures of achievement, workingconditions, recognition, relationships, support, andindependence) chosen by individuals with and withoutdisabilities changed little from 1990 to 2000, sheargues that disability policy changes led to increasedpart-time employment among workers with disabilities.However, the author does not consider whether ornot her sample actually received SSI (or DI).DataResearch on the SSI population is largely based onadministrative data or on special surveys of the beneficiarypopulation (for example, the National Surveyof SSI Children and Families (NSCF) or the NationalBeneficiary Survey (NBS)). 6 Administrative datacannot be used for the purposes of the current researchbecause it is necessary to have a nonrecipient comparisongroup with which to compare the occupationaldistributions. Most recipient-specific survey data sharethis common drawback. National surveys, such as theSurvey of Income and Program Participation or theNational Health Interview Survey often do not includea large enough sample of SSI recipients to obtain reliableestimates of occupations given the small fractionof recipients who work. 7The inability of most survey’s to capture a sufficientlylarge SSI population can be partially overcomeby using a sufficiently large data set. The public-useversion of the 2007 American Community Surveyhas a large enough sample size to accurately measurethe SSI occupational distribution. 8 Roughly 3 millioninterviews are conducted annually, divided among the12 months of the year. The ACS is designed to replacethe decennial census long form and provide researchersand administrators information to evaluate programsand compare communities in intercensal years.This study uses the public-use version of the ACS.As part of the section on income in the ACS,individuals are asked to report how much SSI incomethey received in the previous year. This informationwas used to create a binary variable indicating SSIprogram participation in the previous year. The ACSalso includes three sets of disability-related questions,each including two parts. These questions ask if theindividual: 1a) has “blindness, deafness, or a severevision or hearing impairment” (sensory); 1b) “has acondition that substantially limits one or more basicphysical activities such as walking, climbing stairs,reaching, lifting, or carrying” (physical); 2a) has difficulty“learning, remembering, or concentrating” (mental);2b) has difficulty “dressing, bathing, or gettingaround inside the home” (self-care); 3a) has difficulty“going outside the home alone to shop or visit a doctor’soffice” (go outside home); and 3b) has difficulty“working at a job or business” (employment). 9If nonrecipients reported having any one of theseconditions, they are defined as having a self-reporteddisability; otherwise they do not have a self-reporteddisability. This forms two groups of nonrecipients(with and without a disability) whose occupationaldistributions are compared with that of working-ageSSI recipients (who are all disabled according to SSA’srules, but may not have a self-reported disability inthe survey).In addition to the employed working-age SSI populationand the nonrecipient populations with and withoutdisabilities, three other groups of interest are identifiedin the data: (1) nonrecipients with a work-related disability(the “employment” question above) are includedand analyzed separately because this definition ofdisability is most closely aligned with the definition ofdisability used to qualify a working-age individual forSSI payments based on disability; (2) unemployed SSIrecipients are included; and (3) SSI recipients who arenot participating in the labor force are also included inthe data to inform policy options regarding return towork among the nonemployed SSI population. 10If employed, respondents to the ACS write indescriptions of their occupations (type of work andmost important activities and duties), which are codedby ACS contractors into Standard Occupational Classification(SOC) codes. The 509 identified occupationscan be collapsed into 22 major occupational groups,not including unemployment or military-specificcodes, according to the Standard Occupational ClassificationManual: 2000. 11 For the most part, the SOCgroupings are maintained throughout the article. Thereare, however, two exceptions. First, all construction,extraction, maintenance, and repair occupations arecollapsed into a single group because of the smallnumber of SSI recipients in extraction occupations.Second, computer and mathematical occupations;architecture and engineering occupations; and life,physical, and social science occupations are collapsedinto a single group because of small cell sizes in the50 Social Security Bulletin • Vol. 69 • No. 3 • 2009